Bits and Pieces

So nothing much has been achieved today. Drama hasn’t been planned and marmalade hasn’t been made. I’ve been looking forward to this last one all week. The oranges arrived with the veg box on Thursday, the sugar has been bought & the jars have been dug out of the shed (I suddenly realised how big Daisy’s olive addiction was when most of the labels I was peeling off were olive ones).

BUT I know from last year how long marmalade making takes. I thought it would be like making jam. I didn’t take into account all the peel that has to be finely cut up. Last year I started at 7pm on a Saturday night. I was still at it at midnight when Tom arrived home from the pub with a half-eaten kebab in his hand.

Lovely as marmalade making is (it fills the house with an amazing smell and tastes so good), I didn’t have the energy for it today. This is also reflected in our tea, which was, as my grandma would’ve called it, ‘bits and pieces,’ ie: anything you find that needs using up.

We had ham and cheese, rice cakes & crackers, carrot sticks & cherry tomatoes, and some chicken liver pate. This last thing is something I haven’t bought before but was recommended as having lots of iron in (the liver part). Everyone else refused to eat it but me.

I’ve tried to make the veg look appealing by arranging it in a jazzy way. I seem to do it automatically & I really hope I’m not still doing it when the kids have left home. It’s just that Ollie is far more likely to eat something healthy if it’s in the shape of say an owl or a bat. Today he sat down for tea and asked Tom for a porcupine. Tom did his best with a slice of ham and crisp shards for the prickles, but he doesn’t have as much experience as me & to be quite honest, it looked poor. Ollie did his sad face & slumped sideways across me. He spent most of the rest of the meal draped across me in one way or another until I nearly lost my rag.

Below is a pic which pretty much sums up our day. Daisy snuggled down on the sofa looking shocked at something that had just happened on Corrie, or was it Young Dracula?…..